Miriam Lord: Lacklustre Burton fails even to attract protesters

Five years ago, members of the Labour Party voted overwhelmingly to go into coalition with Fine Gael.

They searched their souls, looked into their hearts and made lots of speeches. After 3½ fraught hours, delegates agreed to “step up to the plate” at a time of unprecedented economic crisis and enter government.

“This is a moment that calls on us to be courageous,” said their leader. “I am just going outside and may be some time.”

Then Eamon Gilmore lifted the tent flap and stepped into a blizzard. He lasted three years before he was eaten by younger and stronger survivors in his team.

Joan Burton is Labour leader now.

“Power postponed is not an option” is what she said at the time. To disregard the voters’ wishes “would be an act of folly”.

Gilmore predicted Labour would suffer as a result but argued the party, by working to restore the economy, would emerge at the other end having gained renewed respect. Becoming part of “a war cabinet” with Fine Gael would lead to a decline in support and Ministers would be attending engagements through lines of protesters waving “a forest of placards”.

He was right on that score, but he never made it to the other end. Burton will be the leader who will learn how much respect is returned.

There was no forest of placards outside the Park Hotel in Mullingar for her pre-election party conference, although the level of security in and around the venue was far more visible than at the recent Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil ardfheiseanna. A very heavy Garda presence, augmented by a large contingent of private security, gave the impression they must have been expecting something to happen.

The media room next to the conference hall was cleared before the leader’s speech so sniffer dogs could give it the once over. Half an hour before the speech they closed the ladies’ lavatories.

“The guards are coming in to sweep the toilets.”

At least they were making themselves useful. They had nothing else to do.

Could the fact that the conference remained untroubled be a sign that things are beginning to get better? This happens when you come out the other end in the nick of time for an election?

It’s either that or something much, much worse: irrelevance. Even the diehards couldn’t be bothered turning up on Saturday.

Doorstep response

Inside the hotel, delegates were in good form. This was down to the indomitable optimism of the human spirit and the doorsteps.

Everyone tells lies about the doorsteps. A party may be in all sorts of trouble, but their troops will always report a “positive response” on the ground and on the doorstep.

Labour had a twist on the usual threshold spin. Members spoke of encouraging encounters. Some noted that voters were more engaged. They were asking about the economy and the recovery. Fewer doors were slamming.

The conference talk was all about a “definite shift”. It must have been hell on Earth for Labour canvassers before that.

Speaking of shifts, there was a political one of seismic proportions on Saturday evening. Perhaps not for normal people, but it meant a lot to Labour. We're not talking Euromillions here, but the leap into double digits in the Sunday Business Post poll was jackpot territory.

It lifted the mood of delegates even more.

Earlier in the day there were the traditional lunchtime panel discussions that are televised live for two hours as therapy for certifiable political anoraks.

The ubiquitous tub chairs were rolled out, with Brendan Howlin seated front and centre. This was as it should be. The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform was to the Labour conference what Michael Noonan was to the Fine Gael ardfheis the week before. Held up as a thing to be admired. The safe and sensible face of recovery, as the grassroots would see it.

The party handlers seem to agree. Howlin gave a very assured media performance over the weekend and is likely to feature strongly during the campaign. Unlike his brash colleague Alan Kelly, Howlin doesn’t have a tendency to make himself the centre of every question.

Willie Penrose, the popular Longford-Westmeath back- bencher, did the warm-up speech for his leader, stressing that Labour is a party of work, not dependency.

“Joan Burton has withstood attacks and criticism from people who have never done anything but carp and hurl abuse from the sidelines,” he bellowed.

His reference to the Tánaiste’s recent canoe mishap went down a storm.

“I’m not going to tell this conference that Joan Burton can walk on water, but I can tell youse all that Joan Burton has played a major part in keeping our country afloat!”

Lacklustre speech

The Tánaiste made a low-key entrance, setting the tone for a fairly lacklustre speech.

The scriptwriter seemed caught in a Jules-Verne- meets-HG-Wells moment as Joan went on about significant journeys undertaken by the people of Ireland – past, present and future.

“We will rightly commemorate 1916 with our economic freedom restored,” she said, asking voters to “complete the journey” and give her party “the mandate to finish what we started”.

The strongest part of her speech was on Labour’s support for the repeal of the Eighth Amendment on abortion. It was warmly received by the crowd, in contrast to the marked reluctance of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil to even acknowledge the issue at their conferences.

Overall, the Tánaiste’s muted message suited the bland and unthreatening conference slogan: “Standing up for Ireland’s future.”

When the 1916 performances happen, Labour will be sitting down for Ireland’s past. As for the here and now, an anxious Labour is hunkering sideways for Ireland’s present.

Will they finally get the respect Gilmore hoped would come when they showed courage and entered coalition during what he termed “no ordinary time” for a country in the grip of crisis?

Or will the words of Tommy Broughan, the only TD who spoke out against coalition at that meeting, come to pass?

It would be “a tragic and hopeless error” for the party, warned Broughan, who is contesting the election as an Independent. Stay too long in government with Fine Gael, he said, “and we will suffer, returning to niche support levels of 10 per cent, if we are lucky”.

On Saturday in Mullingar they crested the 10 per cent mark in an opinion poll and were very happy about it as it could be signalling a trend.

Burton and Labour still believe that some recognition must come for the decision they took at that delegate meeting in 2011. And at their conference, with weeks to go to polling day, they were holding fast to it.

There’s a definite shift on the doorsteps.